Vlasta Rasocha

Graduate Student Research Funding | 2023–2024 Academic Year

Hidden Identities and Stereotype Persistence

Stereotypes about minority groups often persist despite their success in society. In this project, we propose and test a novel mechanism of stereotype persistence: To avoid discrimination, successful minority members take steps to hide their minority status publicly. When successful minority members hide their identity, the majority population is confronted with fewer visible examples of minority success, resulting in stereotype persistence. We combine survey and experimental methods to explore this mechanism in the context of discrimination towards regional immigrants in Brazil.

Vlasta Rasocha, Department of Economics

Vlasta Rasocha is a fourth-year PhD student in economics. Born in the Czech Republic, Vlasta moved to the UK to pursue his undergraduate and master's studies at Cambridge University. In his research, Rasocha uses experimental and theoretical methods to study contact, stereotypes and discrimination, and to shed light on the behavioral consequences of cognitive limitations in complex economic environments.

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